That which is the wonder of one age is the commonplace of the next.

This earthly life is a battle,' said Ma. 'If it isn't one thing to contend with, it's another. It always has been so, and it always will be. The sooner you make up your mind to that, the better off you are, and more thankful for your pleasures.

A long time ago, when all the grandfathers and grandmothers of today were little boys and little girls or very small babies, or perhaps not even born, Pa and Ma and Mary and Laura and Baby Carrie left their little house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin.

She thought to herself, "This is now." She was glad that the cozy house, and Pa and Ma and the firelight and the music, were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago.

We'd never get anything fixed to suit us if we waited for things to suit us before we started.

We heap up around us things that we do not need as the crow makes piles of glittering pebbles.

We had no choice. Sadness was a dangerous as panthers and bears. the wilderness needs your whole attention.